Craft Beer Market Restaurant + Bar

Went to Craft to celebrate a friend's birthday.

First of all, they didn't take reservations, so we had to try to show up early - and the place wasn't full at any point during the evening - probably due to the Squamish Music Fest.

One of my friends ordered the "Around the World" beer sampler. As always, I never order them because there's always one or two that just really sucks. Lo and behold, the one from Quebec (forget the actual name) was really bad (according to my friend). The rest were decent though.

Apparently, my friends were full from lunch so they only ordered some appetizers. Below is the nacho barrel. We understood why it was a "barrel" after it arrived; it was huge - for $18, I guess it has to be. But really, is this WORTH $18? The nachos tasted average, nothing special. We didn't actually finish the whole thing and there were nine of us at the table.

The Crab Cake Sliders were pretty good, especially the aioli on the side. You could definitely taste the crab. $12 and it was gone in less than 5 minutes.

Some of us also ordered the salt and pepper wings and tacos. They were average and wasn't anything spectacular.

As my meal I had the Bacon & Blue Cheese Burger. Everyone was shocked at the colour of the bun - it looked like it was burnt, but tasted fine. The blue cheese oozed out as you cut into it. There was a decent amount of bacon so that every bite you take has some bacon in it. The onions, mustard, and mayo really helped balance the saltiness of the meat and cheese. The fries were well seasoned. Solid burger and fries for $16 - packed two-thirds of it to take home for lunch.

Some other dishes we ordered were the dark beer braised beef brisket, phillips beer can chicken, and brewmaster's chicken sandwich - all of which were decent. Nothing spectacular, but nothing upsetting either.

We ordered the Früli Float for the birthday boy as dessert. It tasted very strongly of strawberry with just a tiny hint of beer. You know it's good when the boys finished the whole thing - can't go wrong with ice cream. The server even brought it with multiple straws for everyone to partake in.

Speaking of server / service. The service was solid. We were sitting in the upstairs loft area but our server was attentive and friendly. My tiny glass of beer (0.45L glass of pilsner for $6.75) was never empty - my server checked in enough to make sure I always had something to drink.

The establishment also charges an automatic gratuity of 18% for large groups, which our server kindly pointed out to us when she brought out the cheque. I thought that was very professional as some servers at other establishments don't say anything and patrons end up just tipping on top of the tip.

Overall, it was a good place for a group of us to just hang out and shout funny stories at each other. I wouldn't go back as I thought everything was over priced but nothing was absolutely delicious or would make you think "Wow, this is great!" I could walk down the block to the Tap & Barrel for better food and more reasonably priced drinks. Probably won't be returning unless I have to go to another birthday or something - but if I had any say in the choice of venue, I'd probably choose somewhere else.